Senegal's agricultural sector remains vital to the development of the national economy, to poverty reduction, and to food and nutrition security in the country. Most producers are smallholder farmers who have insufficient access to high-quality certified seeds, fertilizers, mechanization, and irrigation, all of which limit their ability to increase their yields and income. Access to inputs and services by smallholder farmers is essential to boost income and to meet production requirements of the growing population.
Senegal lies within the drought-prone Sahel region. With irregular rainfalls, the agricultural sector is largely based on rainfed crops and, thus, vulnerable to climatic changes and socio-economic shocks. Significant shares of farmers have obtained credit from micro-finance institutions and/or from relatives/friends within their communities. This would be suggesting that the financial credit market does not perceive farming as highly risky market segment. Farmers use seeds from several sources simultaneously: More than 80% get them from personal reserves, and more than 50% purchase them from markets. Development policy for the agriculture sector need to improve in several fronts.
The use of agricultural data should become integral to governments' planning and farming practices. Senegal has good potential for enhancing production of certain crops which are already customary to local farmers, such as rice, peanut, maize, sesame, and watermelon, whose value chains are being set up and important agro-processing industries are in process of development"